Front Grille Information
DISCLAIMER
The information provided here is for general guidance purposes only. It is a combination of manufacturer guidance, first- and second-hand experience, and personal opinion. It may me inaccurate, incomplete, or outdated.
The front grille of a car is one of its most defining features, and that’s especially true for an Aston Martin.
Before we go any further, let’s get these out of the way:
It can be spelled grille or grill and both are valid. I spell it grille to differentiate it from a grill, which is what I use to cook my steaks.
Bars, slats, and vanes can all be used interchangeably when describing the grilles with that design and construction. It seems to me that “bar” is used most commonly when discussing a grille as a whole, “slat” is used when discussing that individual piece of the grille, and “vane” is used almost never (I’ve only seen it used in Aston Martin parts lists, but not in public discourse).
Yes, we all know about the Ford Fusion. Please stop kicking that dead horse. It died many, many years ago.
While sharing a number of characteristics, models from the Gaydon-era were actually different and grilles were generally not interchangeable from one model to another. The primary exception to this is the DB9 and DBS sharing the same grille, which we’ll cover below.
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V8 / V12 Front Grilles
V8 / V12 Vantage Grille Options
We’re actually quite fortunate that these cars come with quite a few options, so we can pick a grille that best suits our own personal tastes. Generally speaking, each of the grilles for the 2005-2018 V8 and V12 Vantage and all of their variants are interchangeable. This section covers the various grilles used on these cars, and afterwards will be a “notes” section with bits of information about compatibility, weight differences, and so on.
The V8 Vantage was first released with an 8-bar grille, seen in this picture of my red 2007 V8 Vantage.
(c) Owen Moyer Photography
Later on, Aston Martin introduced a 6-bar grille. It maintained the look and style of original 8-bar grille, but was more sporty. Here’s a picture of one on a V8 Vantage S, which came with it from the factory.
(c) Jaz R.
The Carbon Edition 6-bar grille was first featured on the special edition Carbon Edition V12 Vantage, but is now available on its own. Despite its name, it isn’t made of carbon fiber. It’s identical to a standard 6-bar grille except that it’s painted black.
When set side by side, the earlier 8-bar and later 6-bar grilles look very similar. Below is an 8-bar grille (coated in black Plasti-Dip) and a Carbon Edition 8-bar grille.
The grilles also look fairly similar when looked at on a car that’s by itself, but the difference is a bit more obvious when those two cars are lined up beside each other, as can be seen in the picture below. The subtle differences in the grilles as stand-alone parts become very obvious when installed on cars and compared.
For those of us with the old-school 8-bar grille that want something more sporty without spending the money for a new grille, the slats of an 8-bar grille can be removed to create a 4-bar grille. Here’s a super wicked old video I made ages ago showing how to do it.
Although my video led a lot of people to do this modification, I wasn’t the first to do it. Credit actually goes to Aston Martin themselves, who did it on their original Vantage N24 race car.
Aston Martin used the 6-bar grilles on the V12 Vantage but later changed to a new design for the V12 Vantage S, which remained unique to that car. This one consisted of mesh with a carbon fiber frame.
(c) Aston Martin Lagonda
The V12 Vantage S grille is a popular retrofit for other V8 and V12 Vantages but the OEM one is very expensive, which is why ECPS makes their own version. The ECPS version comes with either exposed carbon fiber or painted Piano Black. The Piano Black version is also carbon fiber, but it’s painted because the carbon fiber weave is cosmetically not perfect (a difficult and expensive part of manufacturing carbon fiber products).
There are also two mesh grilles available from Aston Martin: one from AMR and one from Aston Martin Racing, and yes these are two different things.
The AMR lightweight grille is a hexagonal metal mesh coated with a black finish. This is an option from Aston Martin for their road cars.
The Aston Martin Racing mesh grille is a diamond metal mesh painted black. This is an option from Aston Martin Racing for their race cars.
Here’s a picture comparing the two.
In addition to having a different mesh, the difference in the black finish is also more apparent when side-by-side. The black paint on the Aston Martin Racing grille chips more easily, which is why the grille on my grey 2007 V8 Vantage looks so rough. The Aston Martin Racing grille also has a cutout for a tow strap. The tow strap is absolutely necessary as my car has the optional lightweight front bumper beam from a Vantage GT4 race car, which doesn’t allow the use of the factory front tow hook.
There are a few grilles used on Gaydon-era Vantages that are extremely different than the rest, but these are generally not a concern when looking at grille options because they were only made in extremely limited (and extremely-er costly) numbers.
The earliest was the V12 Vantage Zagato, which had a rather rounded design to it.
Another was the Vantage AMR Pro, which uses a much larger front grille styled in a shape similar to the Rapide S.
The other is the V12 Vantage V600 (pictured below), which has a grille that is similar to the Vantage AMR Pro.
The grilles of the AMR Pro and V600 may look the same at first glance, but they are in fact different. Here’s a comparison showing the two.
The V12 Vantage V600 (left) has a hexagonal mesh pattern and construction similar to that of the AMR lightweight mesh grille, very different than the grille of the Vantage AMR Pro (right). Also, the V600 has a rippled wave-like surface while the AMR Pro is a single gentle curve. Lastly, the AMR Pro grille is slightly taller than that of the V600, as it extends to the bottom of the front bumper fascia while the V600 does not.
V8 / V12 Vantage Grille Notes
All front grilles from the 2005-2018 V8 and V12 Vantage and all their variants directly are interchangeable except for a few key exceptions.
The common caveat is the AMR lightweight mesh grille, which has a couple brackets that are needed for installation. These should be included with the grille so it shouldn’t be a problem, but it’s worth noting them because they are required for the grille to be installed.
The Aston Martin Racing lightweight grille doesn’t use those brackets despite being a similar design. Instead it requires a small hole be punched into the front bumper fascia for a mounting post to fit into on each side of the grille. You can see this in the picture above comparing the Aston Martin Racing and AMR grilles, just barely above and to the right of the tow strap.
Lastly, the obvious ones that aren’t interchangeable are the grilles from the Vantage AMR Pro and the V12 Vantage V600, since those are completely different designs.
It’s also worth discussing the weights of each grille as that can factor into the pros and cons for the seven of us that care about such a thing.
8-Bar grille: 3 lbs 13 oz (1.73 kg) - weighed
6-Bar Carbon Edition grille: 2 lbs 15.9 oz (1.36 kg) - weighed
4-Bar (modified 8-bar) grille: 2 lb 2 oz (0.96 kg) - weighed slats removed from 8-bar grille weight
V12 Vantage S grille: approximately 2-2.5 lbs (1 kg) - estimated
AMR lightweight mesh grille: 0 lbs 8.5 oz (0.24 kg) - weighed
Aston Martin Racing mesh grille: 1 lb 1.3 oz (0.49 kg) - weighed
DB9 / DBS / Virage / Vanquish Front Grilles
I’ve lumped all these together because they all look so similar. While they do look similar, there are no part numbers that cross-reference to say which parts work with each cars and a bit of trial and error would be required to test fitment of the various grilles. Unlike the Vantage grilles discussed above, the grilles for these cars mount differently. The grille for a Vantage bolts to the front bumper armature, but the grille for a DB9 (or other car discussed in this section) bolts into a frame that is mounted in the car. The frames (or “supports”) have different mounting points for the grilles that accompany them compared to a different frame/grille pair, and the frames themselves differ from each other as well. Truth be told, though, I haven’t actually tried swapping grilles around on these cars to see what’s possible.
The early DB9 used a 7-bar grille and later had the option for a 5-bar grille. The picture below shows the early DB9’s 7-bar grille.
The DBS had a 5-bar grille that had a unique styling cue in its design. Rather than the slats being shaped in a sweeping, gentle curve, the DBS slats had notches that made the center area of the grille look embossed outward.
A Japanese designer working for Zagato created a couple unique versions of the DB9 and DBS and these cars had equally unique grilles. Below is a picture of the DB9-based convertible that I snapped when the cars were on display at Aston Martin’s Centenary Concours in 2013. The DBS-based coupe has the same design.
The Virage was the transition model for the DB9 and DBS merging to create the updated DB9, and the Virage’s grille looks very similar, if not identical, to that of the later DB9.
The Vanquish first had a slatted 5-bar grille similar to the other cars. The slats featured embossing notches like that of the DBS, but are much more subtle.
The Vanquish S changed over to a carbon fiber frame and mesh design styled like that of the V12 Vantage S.
Rapide / S Front Grilles
The Rapide and Rapide S get their own section because of the dramatic change going from the earlier Rapide to the later Rapide S.
The grille of the earlier Rapide was a traditional slatted design not unlike the rest of Aston Martin’s cars at the time except that the lower grille was also slatted to match the main grille - the only car to receive this lower grille treatment.
When Aston Martin updated the model and dubbed it the Rapide S, the two grilles were merged into one, creating a single massive grille that dominated the front of the car.
Fun fact: The Rapide S pictured above is a hydrogen hybrid car that was entered into the 2013 24 Hours of LeMans. It was the first hydrogen-fueled car to participate in that race and had its own class, E1-XP2. I snapped that picture at Aston Martin’s headquarters in Gaydon, England, during the company’s Centenary celebrations back in 2013.
The large front grille of the Rapide S can be retrofit to an earlier Rapide, but the newer front bumper fascia and likely other parts will be also be needed to do the job.
Lower Front Grilles
Aside from the dominant main (or upper) front grilles, most cars also had a lower grille. These are generally much less obvious, except for the Rapide’s uniquely-slatted lower grille.
The majority of lower grilles are made with a simple diamond wire mesh and shaped to fill the opening. At some point, Aston Martin quietly introduced a hex mesh like that of the AMR lightweight mesh grille, albeit with a slightly smaller hex pattern.
You can also see in the picture above that there are two versions of the lower mesh. The difference is based on whether or not the car is equipped with a front park distance control (PDC) system. If so, there will be cutouts where the PDC sensors are positioned. These cutouts can be seen in the picture above in the bottom-most grille (the one above it, in the middle, is the same part except for a car without PDC). If you’re swapping out your front lower grille you’ll want to keep the possible variation in mind if it affects the lower grille of your car.